In an Interview with GameInformer, Criterion's Vice President Alex Ward announced, that Criterion Games will take full control over the Need for Speed Franchise! EA's original plan to let different studios develop different NFS each year, he said: ""Maybe it's been that way in the past, but that's changed this year with what we're doing… Our stamp's going to be in everything you see in Need for Speed and Burnout going forward in the future. It's not going to be spread anymore across different companies. Different studios have had a crack at it - it's definitely a Criterion gig now."

The studio wouldn't clarify, whether Crition will develop every Need for Speed title, or just oversee the series, but Ward was clear that Criterion will have control over which Need for Speed titles will come out in the future. ""I'm personally involved in how the cars drive, how the game will play out, how connected they are, and what the features are."

As of now the NFS franchise covers different areas with Shift, Most Wanted, Underground and Hot Pursuit, but although there's no definite road map, Ward expressed interest in one all-encompassing NFS title. "I think it would be amazing in the future if there was one big game that had all of these in it. That would be amazing."

This means interesting times for the NFS series, maybe even depending on Most Wanted's success - but after what we heard from the E3, this should be a topseller like Hot Pursuit in 2010...

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